


Make A Good Memory

by Val_Creative



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Adults, Air Temples (Avatar), Angst and Feels, Childhood Friends, Emotional Baggage, Established Relationship, F/M, Flirting, Humor, Implied Sexual Content, POV Aang (Avatar), Post-Avatar: The Last Airbender, Post-Canon, Romance, Tooth-Rotting Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-08
Updated: 2020-07-08
Packaged: 2021-03-04 22:48:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,145
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25154233
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Val_Creative/pseuds/Val_Creative
Summary: Aang revisits the Eastern Air Temple when he’s finally an adult, planning to mend the damage. His heart needs it too.
Relationships: Aang/Katara (Avatar)
Comments: 26
Kudos: 109





	Make A Good Memory

**Author's Note:**

> I'm weak. I'm so weak for Kataang. I really like most of the ships in ATLA but this is the OTP. Next to Zukaang and Tokka. I haven't written for Kataang in twelve years. That's wild. It's also completely unacceptable jlsjfnkasak and hey please enjoy!

*

Beyond a dusty yellow sunrise, Aang can see the mountain-peaks off in the distance.

He escapes into one of the inner buildings of the center towering pagoda. Of the great temple built by the Air Nomads, all three pagodas had been burned. Ravaged in a Fire Nation attack. Green roofing tiles left fractured, scattered to the floor.

Avatar Yangchen's statue gleams in the light.

He solemnly peers at her, the corners of Aang's mouth twitching up. His eyelids shut tightly. Aang listens for the echo of Avatar Yangchen's voice in his deepest and furthermost memories. It's been a long five years since he's heard her so clearly.

_Like your meditation beads… the Avatars are linked…_

_One to the other…_

"Avatar—!"

"Yeah, I'm coming!" Aang shouts, reopening his eyes and grinning.

He heads to a lower tunnel.

Outside the gigantic meditation building, Xing Ying heaves along a netting of ropes in her arms.

"Don't try to cross the bridge on the western spier," Aang tells her kindly, touching Xing Ying's shoulder and moving aside for another Air Acolyte. "It's too damaged. Take Appa with you. Stay together with Yee-Li and the others if you can."

"Got it!"

"We will have to do reconstruction on the main entrance as well. These corridors lead to a sudden drop—so please be careful."

"Ha! Sounds like a job for the Official Avatar Aang Fan Club!" Jingbo crows out, elbowing Aang's side playfully. His oversized, round glasses flash. Aang sees a few of the newer Air Acolytes giggling, hiding their smiles. "Good thing you have us, huh?"

He smiles too, noticing Katara approaching him.

"Very good thing…" Aang murmurs, not taking his eyes off her and smiling harder.

She's wearing a simple blue robe and her fur-lined boots. No hair loopies. All of Katara's dark brown hair flies free. He opens his arms a little when she does, hugging Katara against him and feeling her lips cover his.

"Hi," Aang breathes, slowly pulling away from the warm kiss, nuzzling their noses.

"Hi," Katara repeats softly. Her bright blue eyes crinkle in amusement. "I'm looking for my husband…" she teases, hugging Aang's waist. "I was told he is tall… and a very powerful bender… would you happen to know the Avatar by chance?"

Aang pretends to hum thoughtfully, rocking them a little.

"… I may have heard of him," he confesses.

"Tell him I would like a decent night's sleep after hours… _and hours_ … of flying."

"Yes, sweetie," Aang says dutifully, kissing her face, over and over, and reveling in Katara's squealing laugh. He feels her hand on his neck, hissing pleasantly. Several of Katara's fingertips presses on a small, bruising lovemark to Aang's collarbone.

Katara gazes over him, frowning and straightening up in his arms. Aang's heart stutters.

"What's the matter?" she asks.

"Nothing…"

"Aang," Katara scolds gently, pressing a hand to his chest. Aang swallows hard. The taste in his mouth… it's another… _it's another memory_. The rancid thickness of onion and banana juice. He rubs his mouth. "You can tell me what it is. You know that."

"I do know."

They walk off towards the forest-engulfed ridge of this pagoda, Aang ushering her away from the others.

He remembers everything. Every piece of the past. Aang vanished for an hour as soon as they arrived, searching for Guru Pathik through waterfalls and stone creeks, and up high on the old, misty cliffs where the air blows high and thins.

Even if Aang found him… he wouldn't know what to _say_. It's been too long.

Guru Pathik admitted to being a spiritual brother to Aang's people. The closest person to Monk Gyatso besides Aang.

He offered to help Aang unlock his chakras, and Aang took off, rejecting his lessons in fear of losing someone he loved forever. An earthly attachment. Those kind of attachments would prove dangerous to him, Guru Pathik told Aang. He said it like a warning. He insisted that in order for Aang to bring balance to the world… Aang must first bring balance to himself. Aang failed then.

Aang failed… and he _died_ in the process.

One of Katara's hands flattens against the burn-scarring to Aang's spine. He winces.

_(There's been no sign of Guru Pathik.)_

"The last time I was here…"

Aang finds his next breath trembling.

"… I was told to let you go for the greater good, Katara," he explains dully. "To forget you."

Katara's blue eyes moisten.

"Before I ran away, the monks at the Southern Air Temple wanted to separate me and Monk Gyatso," Aang says, brushing his knuckle under her eye to wipe a tear. "They wanted to send me to the Eastern Air Temple to live and to finish my training."

"No wonder you're acting so strange… there's not many good memories…"

Aang shakes his head. "I wouldn't say that. I met Appa here when we were little. He picked me." He grins so brightly, hopefully. "I want to rebuild this temple. Make it a _haven_ … make it somewhere we can go to find peace. Even with the history behind it."

Reassurance floods through him when a teary-eyed Katara offers a smile.

"If anyone can do it… it's you, Aang."

"Come with me," Aang urges, clasping Katara's hands into his.

"Where are we going?"

"You'll see—oh, and you might wanna hang on," he says mischievously. Aang returns his wife's arms around him before jumping off the ledge.

They fall into the air, downwards towards a patch of woods along the mountainside.

Katara screams out, clinging to him desperately as Aang summons his airbending, navigating them safely and cushioning them from any harsh impact. Flying lemurs screech and startle in the branches. Aang groans, hunching up and peeling a crushed moon-peach from his bottom.

"Oops," he mutters.

Katara climbs to her feet, gawking up at the sun-drenched leaves. Lush and so vividly green. A cluster of white lotuses bloom, perfumed and perfect, within reach. "Oh, Aang," she says giddily, "It's so _beautiful_. Have you been here before?"

"Yeah, I accidentally found it," Aang says sheepishly, rubbing his neck. "But, uhm, I didn't have a pretty girl with me at the time."

"No girls?"

"Lots of Air Nomad girls lived here. I saw them when I visited with the monks." Aang's eyes light up. "None of them were you," he admits. Katara, appearing very delighted by her husband's words, paces the clearing as if assuring their privacy.

_"You know…"_

She unbuttons the top portion of her robe, slyly lifting an eyebrow. Aang's cheeks redden.

_"We could make a good memory here…"_

"Katara," Aang gasps in mock-disapproval, chuckling and feeling Katara tug him in. He's not gonna stop her. Aang presses a hot, wet kiss to her ear as Katara slips out of the upper robe, hugging Aang's blue-tattooed arms possessively around herself.

What they have is each other.

Memories can wait.

*


End file.
